Annual Fund: Why Teachers Give

March 5, 2017

What makes you proud of Santa Fe Prep? Perhaps it’s the discoveries and voices of our students from all neighborhoods of Santa Fe enriching the education for all? Maybe it’s our teachers who are among the most talented and educated in New Mexico because of our incredible professional development programs? Or perhaps you see how we strive, daily, to do better and give more to our students so they are phenomenally prepared when they graduate? The Annual Fund makes all this happen and more.

But let’s hear from our teachers and staff exactly why they think giving to this fund is so important:

“Prep is an excelling community of superb faculty, staff, and students eager to learn and lead. I want to encourage excellence in any way that I can. I see myself as a recipient of great generosity, faith in my abilities, and kindness from the Prep community and my small gift is a way to express my appreciation. I hope to reciprocate what the Prep Community has shown me.” – Alex J. Peña, Art Teacher

“I give because this is an inspiring school in an inspiring city, and I want to show my appreciation to all of us who help make this community so strong.” – Sheena Chakeres, Spanish Teacher

“Why do I give? I give because Prep believes in intellectual engagement through active discourse; our school believes in fostering deep-rooted community involvement in TAP and Breakthrough; our school believes in the power of active participation and exploration through the arts; and we foster collaboration and sportsmanship through various athletic pursuits. Students, faculty and staff benefit from the many opportunities we are granted because we attend or work at Prep. We all grow and learn together; and we are all encouraged to pursue our passions. Why do I give? I give because I appreciate all that I have been given in my fourteen years here and because I believe in our school.”– Mike Multari, Director of Admissions

“Why do I give? I believe in what we are doing as a school and as part of the wider community through the amazing Breakthrough program or my own Convergence TAP, which helps create new opportunities for youth in the arts and music, and I want to show my support for everything we do here as a result. This kind of community is truly rare in terms of the people and resources that it brings together. My colleagues are professionals in their crafts and disciplines, and they are friends. The students are diverse in their backgrounds, talents, and passions, and they, along with my colleagues, challenge and inspire me to be the best I can be as an educator. The recent renovations, even seemingly simple things like the white walls, are changing how I engage the students in the classroom in order to annotate a primary or secondary source that I project on the wall, or how I allow students to draw on the walls and use their art to help them grasp the material and communicate it to their peers in a different register. Additional support from the school has helped my partner, Nicole, and me purchase a house in which we are raising our young son and daughter, and I can bring them to school events like sports and theater productions that expose them to a broad range of experiences, and the sense of this community that I hope helps to shape them as young people in the future. The school also provides me with a range of support for professional development. Assuming the role of the head of the history department puts me in charge of a group of excellent historians who desire to collaborate and push our students in the research and writing processes that we think will help them in their pursuits beyond academics as critically thinking citizens of our country and the world. The school also provides financial support that enables me to continue my postdoctoral research and writing on the history of emotions, attend conferences where I continue to organize the Emotions Studies Network, and work on upcoming publications on the history of emotions in German studies. So for all of these reasons I cannot think of a better place to be at this time in my life, and a better place to support.” – Russell Spinney, History Teacher